


the little things (phan)

by taniavee28



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2017 Dan Howell/Phil Lester, Amazingphil - Freeform, Christmas Fluff, Cute Dan Howell/Phil Lester, Dan Howell - Freeform, Dan Howell Loves Phil Lester, Daniel Howell - Freeform, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Freeform, M/M, Mentions of existential crises, Mild Language, One Shot, Phan - Freeform, Phan Fluff, Phil Lester - Freeform, Phil Lester Loves Dan Howell, Slice of Life, danisnotonfire - Freeform, mentions of depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 02:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13114428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taniavee28/pseuds/taniavee28
Summary: in which Dan realises that the little things in life are the ones that often hold the most meaning.





	the little things (phan)

**Author's Note:**

> this was also posted on my wattpad and tumblr, but i thought that d post it here. please enjoy!
> 
> warnings : nothing much, just a bit of language 
> 
> disclaimer : this is a mere work of fiction revolving the lives of two of my favourite YouTubers, Daniel Howell and AmazingPhil. this story, and the ones following it, are entirely fictious. the relationship that exists between Dan and Phil, as they are called, is to be labelled as what they want it to be called.

Dan can't help but sigh contentedly looking at their eight-foot tall Christmas tree adorned with little ornaments, both new and old. He and Phil had spent a lot of time in decorating and prepping themselves for the festive season, from bantering over a nice spot to place their Christmas tree, from choosing who gets what gift (while keeping their gifts to each other a secret), to dividing the chores between them, and in the last minute, choosing to call someone from the cleaning agency to do it for them instead. Their little tree debate involved choosing a spot for it, because it couldn't be too far in the corner, or else the tree would just seem like it was hugging the walls, nor could it be too far out in the centre of the room either, it'll be a bother to get around its all of the wires from the fairy lights spanning out in a fashion that resembled nothing other than its very own electronic roots. Phil cracked a joke that they could call their tree a hybrid, the first of its kind too, dubbed the FirTronic, and it made Dan laugh despite the cringe, maybe even because if it, but he didn't care. He even added his own spin to it, lamenting that his joke was "Fironic." 

It was stupid, and childish, Dan knew, but it made them laugh so much Phil almost tipped the tree over from elbowing it in a laughing fit. Dan was quick to warn him, of course, in his own way. By screaming. "PHIL YOU ALMOST TIPPED THE TREE OVER!", Dan screamed, trying his hardest to chide him, and completely giving up on it when it only made them chortle harder afterward. 

Eventually, they settled for a spot that seemed to be just the right one, one that was albeit more towards the corner of the room, but closer to the power source (and more trip-proofed) than the centre of the room. He didn't really worry about falling over and getting tangled in the wires himself rather than having Phil get hurt instead. His mind took a quick detour in the non-consensual way it always does back to the time they were filming the ninth instalment of Phil is not on fire last November. He really didn't favour the idea of Phil crab walking up the stairs - in his socks, Dan would like to add - partly because socks (mismatched or not) against a smooth surface is an incredibly slippery combination, partly because Phil was prone to be a klutz, partly because he didn't like seeing Phil get hurt. Scratch that, he fucking hates it. Present tense. 

Philip ( with only one 'L' because his parents were a tad bit hipster) Michael Lester is just too much of an angel bean for the world. 

Dan, still in his festive mood, lets himself admire and revisit the memory behind the ornaments that adorn the tree. Almost every single one of them was tied to an event, each one soaked in the sometimes sugarsweet, sometimes bittersweet cocktail that was nostalgia. He sees the penguin back from the years before, from when his videos were still a blurry mess because of the crappy camera, from their first home. He sees a fairly new red ornament with diamond shapes studded across the equator and alternating rhombi of gold and red streaking out from both vertices of each diamond hanging prettily from the branch adjacent to his height, not far from the penguin. It brings back waves of memories from when he and Phil happened to catch sight of the ornaments on sale earlier that year after they'd moved in to their current apartment. Phil liked the bright red one, Dan loved the aesthetic of the gold one with uniform waves around it. Call it a random act of friendship, or acknowledgement, but they'd promptly hung each other's favourite new design at the top tier, the one directly below the star, where it would be the most noticeable. It was a sweet gesture, nonetheless.

Even thinking about it puts a small smile on his face.

It's not often that he gets epiphanies, but when he does, no matter how small they might be, the realization is all-consuming, and he's just standing there, blinking furiously, and he knows to take them seriously, for at that seemingly insignificant moment in a far-off microscopic planet humans call Earth in the vast monstrosity that is the universe, he, an even tinier, even more insignificant man gets a small epiphany : that in life, the little things are the ones that matter the most.

Thinking about this, it dawns more and more on him that it's the little things that Daniel James Howell finds himself looking for. It might be a tiny glitch in a game, but it gets him and Phil chortling the most. It might be something childish, like when Phil wants the marshmallows that were rightfully Dan's prize for him winning a DanAndPhilGames challenge fair and square, but he gave them to him anyway, after punching him on the shoulder repeatedly and spilling marshmallows all over their desk while yelling about how unfair it all was. It might be something annoyingly domestic like Phil stealing  his cereal and leaving only a substantial amount that wouldn't be enough for him to have a satisfying bowl the next morning, and its one of the things that annoy him the most - but he'll look at Phil's sheepish smile and the crinkle in his eyes as he says in a soft tone, "Sorry..." and Dan would let him go although knowing that Phil is bound to do it again, because it's the way the little smile that thaws his annoyance and replaces it with a familiar warm  feeling instead. 

Thinking about the little things there is to love about life, he's reminded of the little things he loves about Phil Lester. Like Phil's eyes - how blue they are, so much so that he could swim in them; how they shine when he does something he loves; how they crinkle when he's truly smiling. Or like Phil's smile. The way it lights up his eyes when he does. The way it makes Dan want to keep looking at it, and the way it makes him warm on the inside. The way when he's in the middle of a livestream, donned in a black Llama sweater topped off with a black Christmas hat so as to match his aesthetic, and Phil comes barging in to wrap a purple tinsel around Dan's neck because "That's what you get for making me get the post, Dan." 

Well that's just not fucking  fair, because Tinsel around the neck is fucking horrible, and poky, and just plain uncomfortable. 

But so is social interaction.

Oh shut up, stupid internal voice.

He sees Phil sauntering into the room, making weird noises and being the fuzzy oddball he is. He looks at Dan, and back at the tree, and he understands that in that moment Dan's taking a trip down memory lane, and he just tells him in a soft voice, "We did good, yeah?" Dan just hums in reply, but then the two of them break into their usual banter again. Dan looks at Phil and thinks big, big things, things like I love you so much you spork, and Phil thinks them about Dan too sometimes, but Dan chooses not to say anything, and instead goes with the flow. The friendly banter.

Because Dan knows that he needn't say anything, that they both know that the feeling is mutual, but they don't need to say it to to say it. To show it.

Because its in the little things Phil does, the way he does whatever he does and remains as his adorable weirdo, and there and then Dan realises that he's content with the little things in life no matter how insignificant they might be, because these little things hold so much of value, and that they're what he needs to keep him tethered to reality when he wakes up to find out the colours have bled out of his world, along with his emotions, only to leave tones of whitegreyblack behind in the way that they do sometimes. They bring back the colours, bit by bit, slowly but surely.

So yes, he'd stick with the small things, because they do mean the most.


End file.
